K Crunch November 2011 – Part 1 – Kpop

Ahhh yeah! It’s that time again! K Crunch is back! We didn’t put one up for October, seeing how we were in Canada and trying to have a vacation and all, but that doesn’t mean we forgot about K Crunch! This month, our video was so big that we had to cut it up into two sections: Part 1 covers Korean Music, Part 2 covers Korean dramas. We’ve loaded them both in the playlist above, including the videos we review, if you want to conveniently watch them all in one place. If you’d rather watch the videos one by one, we’ve embedded them in this post as well.

And so, in order of appearance, we start off with Jay Park’s “Girlfriend”.

Jay Park: we like your music. The three videos we reviewed, Abandoned, Demon, and now this, all are great songs. Really. Great music there. The videos though…are questionable. Abandoned was really quite cool, apart from the awkward girl with big boobs and Jay Park’s crying to her. Demon was just…let’s not talk about that video. Girlfriend, though, has much better production value than Demon. Still not as good as Abandoned, in our opinion, as a video. Mostly because of Jay Park’s really creepy relationship with that girl. We poked fun at his stalker like tendencies. How about how weird that headphone scene was? You know, the one where he sneaks up on the girl and puts headphones on her from behind. Anyone ask where he got those headphones from? Did he walk into the club thinking “yeah these are my girl-getting-headphones yo! I’m gonna get me some fly hunnies tonight!” And didn’t she reject him first? So why would putting headphones on a girl who rejected you all of a sudden make her like you? Holy crap. The whole scene was unbelievably weird. We’re happy Jay Park finally did something with a girl, but – yuck – the ends don’t justify the means.

Next on our list is Rania’s “Pop Pop Pop”

Rania almost got voted in for Music Monday when Dr Feel Good came out. We would have loooooved to review that video! But it never made it. Now that Pop Pop Pop came out, it’s unfortunate that it’s not getting as much attention. We like the song more than Dr Feel Good, really. Yes, the chorus does remind us a bit of 2NE1/Big Bang’s “Lollipop,” but that’s just a bit. The rest of the song is pretty awesome. The video isn’t really that high budget, as it mostly focuses on them dancing with little in terms of special effects, apart from the slow motion hair flying sequence, which looks great in slow motion, but wouldn’t it look silly live? More importantly though, we can’t really pass up on an opportunity to ruin sexy videos for you. It’s like, one of our favourite things to do. BAM!

Ok, if we haven’t made this clear on Twitter yet, or through the swearing in this video, we love this song. Totally love it. Think we’re lying? Check out our Last.fm profile. We had it on loop. But that wasn’t all. We kinda went a bit overboard. We contacted Clazzi and Fluxus music and told them how much we loved the song. After a few tweets and some emails back and forth, we’ve set up an interview with Clazzi. That’s right! WE ARE GOING TO INTERVIEW CLAZZI! Next week we’re meeting Clazzi in his studio, and we’re going to do a video with him. We’ll talk about his upcoming projects, his inspirations, his thoughts on music in Korea, and more. SHAZAM!

They also agreed to taking in questions from you guise. That’s right! So let us know what you’d like us to ask Clazzi. We’re going to pick some of the top rated questions and see which ones Clazzi would like to talk about. Woot! Leave your questions here, or in our Facebook poll, and we’ll ask him next week!

Just a bit of background, my college specialised in music, and many of our graduates went on to do a musical career. Some joined orchestras or big bands, some started performing or singing in a band, and some took up solo singing careers. Funnily enough, it was a non-music student who took up DJing who ended up being the most successful. It put me under the impression that electronic music is comparatively easy – you can be good at it with minimal training and/or talent. What do you think of this? What do you think is required to be a successful DJ?

In Australia, the main way to gain recognition is to play gigs at clubs, bars, and eventually music festivals, until you earn enough fans to sell music on iTunes or something similar. In Korea, it seems that singers just need to join a company, get trained for many years, and then debut. Was it the same for you? Or did you also play gigs at clubs, perhaps as an underground DJ type thing?

P.S. Simon and Martina, kinda off topic but, how about get him to try some of those weird candies you got in the mail? I personally want to know if he likes Vegemite. Hah.

I love the song and the video. I can’t stop watching it. Would you ask Clazzi, why he chose Seulong and how was it working with him? Also What was the inspiration for the video and how it correlates with the song?

What?!!?? No tYoun MiRae??!! No mention of the kill-bill-esque awsomeness of Tasha’s “Get It In’ Song/MV??!!!
Aw I was super hoping that one to be mentioned, I mean seriously it is SUPER AWESOME in either Korean or English!!
Aish oh well =/

Question for Clazzi: Are there any plans of bringing back your project group Clazziquai. I would love to see you guys back making an album. You guys are the definition of a perfect group, love everything about it.

Loved the K Crunch! My question for Clazzi is what are your biggest musical and fashion influences? (since I saw some hints of Hot Chip and Daft Punk) Would he like to release his music overseas? Has he thought of producing?

So,what I would ask DJ Clazzi,if I had the chance to
I’d like to know more about the place of Clazziquai in the korean pop culture-since it’s a blend of electro,house,but it has a jazzy feel…
Also,[and that sounds a bit trivial] what comes next?Any future plans of a Clazziquai project,or a collaboration with other artists?
What do you find inspiring-influence of other artists,things from the everyday life,or..?

I love Clazzi!!! Have you heard Lazy Sunday Morning? And Tell Yourself? And oh mygod I was so amazed when I heard Take a Walk which was a very sweet mix of English and Korean. It needs a movie attached to it. Anyway, I don’t really have a question in mind but I’d like to know if they’re really going into full techno.. I wish they’d keep the bossa and funk forever.

I was never really into that kind of music… but “How we feel” was awesome! I couldn’t get it out of my head.. my sister was like What are you singing… haha Thanks for introducing me to the song! LOVE IT!

i like it!!!
-DJ CLAZZI is really good!!!
-hahaha i am in crazy love with FBRS tooo!!!! everything you guys mention is sooo true….however i love the overly done acting =))

-only complain is that TABLO has not been mentioned at all…is it that you don’t like those types of songs, Airbag, BAD, Try, Tomorrow, Dear TV…they are all my favorites, the lyrics, the meaning, maybe is because there is not so much plot on video? i don’t know but i would think that you guys would enjoy it….english 5 out of 5 =DD….unless you are doing it, then never mind!

No we actually love Tablo (and we’re big fans of Epik High as well….bought their last two albums) and we had started to script our music monday review of Bad and then he got out voted via email on the last vote day. :( And Bad was released in October, so we couldn’t even include it in K-crunch! Just bad timing I guess?

hey simon and martina!! ^^
i’m from america, and i was wondering if you knew where i could download the song how we feel. all i can find to download is the MV, and i don’t want that. i’m not trying to get it for free, i just want the song.thanks!!

Yay clazzi! Clazziquai is by far my favorite group of all time! I mean c’mon who wouldn’t love a mix of Alex’s smoky vocals, Horan’s sultry and soothing harmonies, DJ Clazzi’s catchy mixes and (also occasionally Christina’s tonal clarity when she is featured!).

My burning questions are:
1. Although Alex and Horan are doing well on their other projects, when will Clazziquai as a group have a comeback to release their next hit song/single/album?
2. What will be the idea/theme behind the project?

Keep up the awesomeness ^^!

..ooh on a side note Martina & Simon, I found an awesome ranch chicken kebab recipe that you might find useful if you ever have cravings for skewers!